Prince warned Blair armed forces were in Iraq 'without necessary resources'
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Version 0 of 1. The Prince of Wales challenged Tony Blair over the way Britain’s armed forces were asked to serve in Iraq “without the necessary resources” 18 months after the invasion of the country. In an echo of later Tory criticisms of the last Labour government, the heir to the throne warned of the way in which troops were inadequately equipped for their “extremely challenging job”. The prince raised his concerns in a letter to the then prime minister on 8 September 2004, largely devoted to farming, which was written from his Birkhall estate in the Scottish Highlands. The letter forms part of a cache of secret memos sent by Prince Charles to senior UK ministers which has finally been published, following a 10-year freedom of information battle between the Guardian and the government. The correspondence was disclosed after the Guardian finally won the legal tussle. The government had argued that publication of the letters would make it hard for Charles to maintain a position of public neutrality when he becomes king. The prince reminded Blair that they had discussed the way in which the deployment of a new Army Air Corps surveillance system, known as the Oxbow, was being frustrated by the poor performance of Lynx helicopters in high temperatures. He wrote: “Despite this, the procurement of a new aircraft to replace the Lynx is subject to further delays and uncertainty due to the significant pressure on the defence budget. I fear that this is just one more example of where our armed forces are being asked to do an extremely challenging job (particularly in Iraq) without the necessary resources.” The prince ended his letter by apologising for writing at such length to Blair. The warning mirrored concerns that were later raised by the Tories after the expansion of the British mission into southern Afghanistan led to a dramatic increase in casualties. The mission into Helmand province began in 2006. In his speech to the last Tory conference before the 2010 election, David Cameron criticised Labour for failing to equip troops properly. He said on 8 October 2009: “I know the most urgent requirement of all. That those brave men and women we send into danger have every piece of equipment they need to do the job we ask of them. I will make sure that happens.” Related: Read the Prince Charles 'black spider' memos in full Dame Margaret Beckett, the former Labour foreign secretary who received letters from the prince during her earlier term as environment secretary, said she had mixed feelings about them. She said it could be helpful for ministers when the prince intervened on some rural matters, though she said that people might have the right to know he if he attempted to change government policy. Beckett told the PM programme on BBC Radio 4: “I don’t recall feeling it was a problem that he was in communication. Maybe, if there were other things he wanted us to change where we weren’t going in the same direction, one might have felt differently. If you are straying into that kind of area then I do think there is some right for the public to know that concern is being expressed if an attempt were being made to change policy.” |